concerned

Wouldn't the word seeking mean new people that filed and not those already receiving? And what is this seasonally adjusted stuff. Isn't that just a bunch of double talk saying someone played around with the figures? You can make number say what ever you want it just depends on how you spin them. Reality is what is actually going on in the country.

Kozy62

The decline of labor force participation – the technical term for the share of adults working or searching – is primarily the result of a bad economy.

Baby boomers are aging into retirement. Even before the recession, the government projected in 2007 that participation would decline to 65.5 percent by 2016, from 66 percent. But the April rate of 63.3 percent means the labor force has lost roughly five million additional workers.

Furthermore, the projections were wrong. Participation has actually risen among people older than 55. The decline is entirely driven by younger dropouts.

Kozy62

The government counts as unemployed only those who are actively looking for new jobs. As people have given up, the unemployment rate has declined – not because more people are working, but because more people have stopped looking for work.

The share of adults looking for work peaked at 6.4% of the population in 2010. It fell to 4.7% in April. But recall that over the same period, the share of adults with jobs did not change. What grew instead is the share of adults no longer counted as part of the labor force.

(The unemployment rate also uses a different denominator than the employment rate: Workers plus searchers, rather than the entire population. For the sake of consistency and clarity, the figures in the previous paragraph show “unemployment” as a share of the entire population.)

WatchDog

Whizkid, those numbers you obtained from the bureau of labor are only actual counts of those who are on unemployment benefits. Doesn't include those on welfare, those no longer seeking employment benefits and those that have never worked in their lives from disabilities, self employed...those numbers are not accurate.

WatchDog

First I don't understand the poll question. Seeking unemployment benefits? What is there to be impressed about period in any of this?

The questions is how many Americans seeking unemployment benefits that have now exhausted their benefits have been rolled over into the Welfare system or gave up trying to find jobs or found jobs that were part time or a job that paid less than the job they were collecting unemployment benefits from?

What is the total of number of people that have been rolled into the summer job temporary work program and now counted towards the unemployment numbers?

Those are the break down numbers that would tell the tale! Paper shuffling people...the only thing Government is good at and they know exactly how to manipulate the numbers politically.

Mtlhed

There are so many ways to manipulate the math and put spin on what you want the end result to show, that none of it is believable. I just worry about my own house and I'm thankful that at least I'm still working and getting by.